Absence Procedures

Reporting Absences

It is the responsibility of parents to inform the school of the reason for any absence by note, telephone or via Parentmail on the first day of absence.

When a message is received by telephone the, school office staff will enter the reason given onto the system.

Authorised Absences

Under the Education Act 1993 only the School and not the parents can authorise absence.

A pupil is considered to have an authorised absence when he/she is unable to attend either because:

• he/she is ill; or
• of some unavoidable cause; or
• of a religious observance; or
• he/she is receiving treatment at a medical, dental or similar appointment; or
• of a bereavement; or
• of some exceptional circumstance negotiated with the Head of School

Unauthorised Absences

Unauthorised absences are absences, which do not fit the description of authorised absence given in the last section whether or not it is explained and all absences, which are not explained.

They would include;

• shopping trips
• looking after the house
• looking after brothers and/or sisters
• an aggregate of holidays in term time
• extended trips;
• Photographic modelling sessions

Lateness

A child is considered late if he/she is not present at the time the registers are closed.

These times are as follows;

Beyond the times stated in the timetable, your child will be marked late.

The afternoon register is taken at 1:30pm. If your child arrives after 1:35pm, your child will be marked as late.

Monitoring procedure

The Headteacher will discuss absences on a fortnightly basis with the delegated admin officer looking for:

• unexplained absences; and
• patterns of absences

It is also the responsibility of the class teachers to raise concerns regarding absences. These concerns should in the first instance be raised by the class teacher with the parent/carer of the child. And can also be raised at the weekly Thursday business meetings. Where appropriate the Headteacher will make a referral to the Attendance Advisory Service.

Late Collection

There may be occasion when children are picked up late due to unforeseen circumstances- e.g medical emergency, transport issues.

The school is prepared to keep children in the school office for up to 20 mins provided parents have notified the school that they are going to be late. Parents need to ensure as much as possible they are on time to pick up their children as constant lateness in collection will be seen as neglect and as a last resort the school would refer the parent to children's services. If a child is late being picked up the class teacher or LSA will bring the child to the school office. If the parent has called to inform us the office will let the child know why their parents are late. However if no phone call has been made we will wait until 3:40pm before calling the parents.

If we cannot contact the parents we will call the emergency contact numbers. If we have made no contact with any parent by 4.00pm we would call the duty social worker at Greenwich children's Services to inform them of the possibility of a left child. The Headteacher will speak with any parents who are consistently late and inform them of the school procedures to contact children's services.

Late children should be signed out on our system in the main reception.